Posts by casualotter21

Ashley Chase92 said:I’m actually really digging this series. Honestly, though, it’s starting to feel a bit tedious because nothing much has changed for several episodes—zero action, zero momentum, just nothing happening. Yesterday’s episode was a complete letdown. I get that everything is meant to unfold gradually, but does it really have to be this agonizingly slow? They could probably afford to pick up the pace a little. I wonder if we'll eventually figure out what happened with the Scuderi family, or how the kid and the preacher are linked beyond the obvious "kid is the hero, preacher is the villain" trope. And then there's the mystery of why everyone is obsessed with the boy—Sophie's mother, the administration, Blinking...

Agreed, the pacing is definitely sluggish. We pick up tiny crumbs of information every episode, but it's all moving at a snail's pace. I'm still willing to stick with it for now, but we'll see if it stays worth the wait...

Well, I have already shared my thoughts on Predator 2. If you actually have the stomach for it, feel free to read them. Otherwise, you’ve probably made the right call by skipping it.

Rachel Collins3 said:Yeah, Predator 2 is absolute perfection. It possesses a certain quality that most modern films just seem to lack.

Holy hell! 😈

mgalesic said:Honestly, the first one beats the sequel any day.

True. I noticed that too. 😬

wiredotter79 said:One shouldn't forget Fargo either... what an absolute trip! I found myself laughing through the whole thing, only to be hit by the sudden realization that this actually happened. Hotdamn!

Actually, that isn't quite right. The Coen brothers admitted later on that the entire story was purely fictional.

Henry Martin10 said:I just caught this on FOX; it’s been maybe five or six years since I last watched, and honestly, it still holds up quite well.

Personally, I find the premise hilarious. Danny Glover taking down a Predator? That’s only happening if Mel Gibson is standing right next to him. In a man-to-alien showdown, you simply don't have anyone who can go toe-to-toe with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Personally, my favorite film is one by the Coen brothers. I’ve probably seen it three or four times now. Perhaps I find it a little too easy to lose myself in their existential dilemmas.

😬

Carol Rodriguez3 said:The series just got pulled from the schedule here in the States right after its second season, all thanks to dismal ratings.

Figures. 🙄

Americans could really benefit from having a public broadcaster like the BBC that actually requires a subscription. It might stop producers from chasing ratings like a bunch of drunks looking for a fight.

However, here we go again: this is already the third thread about War of the worlds in just three months, rather than continuing the previous one. It’s a decent enough movie, I suppose.

casualotter21 said:First off, I'm a woman... 👋

Honestly, gender doesn't matter much here until you start posting your nudes.
😬 👋

Scarlett O'Hara said:Yeah, because the name of the country actually matters. Whatever. It’s not like it's the first time Americans have had to cook up some fictional nation for a movie just because their usual 200+ options clearly aren't enough... 🙄

I'm assuming the logic is that if you *invent* a country to mock instead of using a real one, you won't deal with angry viewers feeling personally insulted by the caricature.

...

Unless, of course, we're talking about a director who will hunt for any excuse for Anti-Americanism, even in a mindless comedy. There's a certain irony here: the country in the film is completely made up, yet he's still hell-bent on insisting it represents Austria—which the Americans, being the crude bunch they are, have mocked. Aside from a somewhat similar name, there's honestly zero substance to that theory.

George W. Bush said:The second one. They modeled the actual Canada after Stalinist USSR. Officially, this third version is what they claim, but any idiot knows that Slovetziu is clearly just code for Canada.

...unless they're actually referring to Slovakia. Well, that would be quite the mess. 😬

George W. Bush said:Where did you even find that image?

I have no idea where he pulled it from online, but that map shows up right at the beginning of the film.

Brandon Martin7 said:Compared to Japanese animation, American sci-fi fantasy is incredibly short-sighted—banally rational, cliché-ridden, predictable, commercialized, dull, and frankly, just plain stupid.
Japanese anime is an absolute explosion of imagination; it's brilliant futurism, mysticism, and surrealism. It refuses to follow the Western playbook of simplicity, rational limits, and sheer mediocrity. That’s why the sluggish, unimaginative approach of Western creators fails to navigate the infinite possibilities that anime provides.

You really have to admire the deadpan seriousness of someone calling it an "explosion of imagination."😍 When I was watching "Half-Dragon" and "Slayers," I certainly wasn't under the impression I was witnessing "brilliant futurism."😬

Lawrence Booth2 said:It's quite simple, really.
I don't know Japanese,
I can't memorize any names,
and I just can't seem to connect with the characters...

You aren't going to get anywhere if you don't at least give it a shot. It's all about getting used to it. I'm speaking from experience here.

After spending years watching American movies and TV shows, I was actually a bit overwhelmed trying to watch an animated film where I couldn't understand a single word being said; I had to rely entirely on following the subtitles. It also took me some time to pick up on the internal jokes and the mindset of the creators living halfway across the world, though they aren't actually that different from us.

When I read my first manga, "Oh, My Little Pony," I was honestly intimidated because I expected some incomprehensible piece of art filled with niche references I wouldn't grasp. I felt a bit like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation."

Then, after the first episode, I realized I was just reading a standard comedy strip. And a funny one at that.

"Awesome! This is great!" I thought to myself. "See? These creators aren't so bad after all."

Later, I started reading "The Matrix." And okay, that *actually was* a strange piece of work with internal jargon that I barely understood.

But hey, I survived it and lived to tell the tale. I went through the exact same thing with animated films. But once I got acclimated and stumbled upon a few good series, I realized that the language barrier didn't bother me at all. In fact, the more you watch, the more you start to understand their specific style and humor.

My advice: try starting with "Cowboy Bebop." To this day, it remains my favorite. It has action, it has humor, and the soundtrack is incredible... Of course, you have to be willing to sit through some Sci-Fi for it, but that's on you. If you can't handle that, there isn't much I can do to help.

brightgull15 said:When I'm stuck watching movies like this, I just opt for a whirlwind instead. Amen.

Well... if we're being honest, this is actually even better! It’s basically the wuxia version of a whirlwind. Instead of Scarlett O'Hara taking out some dirty hillbillies with a pistol, she just pretends she's going to give them what they want, starts stripping, and passionately tears her dress off. Then she leaps into the air, performs a triple mortal flip over the guys, and sends one flying straight through a wall from the sheer force of the impact. Meanwhile, the other guy throws two knives at once—tracking blades that magically change direction mid-air—but then Scarlett kicks the projectiles away, flips a rug, and the shockwave travels through the carpet to knock over two more guys who tumble down the stairs. BESTEST MOVIE EVAR, MAN!!111!!11one

In all seriousness, though, House of Flying Daggers was fine, but it didn't quite hit the heights of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. As far as the flying goes, that's perfectly standard for the wuxia genre they belong to, much like how gunfights are standard for an action flick. Americans have been reading wuxia novels for ages.

For something a bit more grounded among Asian historical martial arts films, I’d recommend Mouse—I saw it back when it was playing in theaters and I genuinely enjoyed it: the cast, the fights, the bond between a small group of people helping each other out... that sort of thing.

There's probably a thread about this somewhere on the forum, but I really can't be bothered to look for it.

First you say:

Bill Gates said:It’s painfully obvious to any idiot that we're talking about Austria.

And then you say:

They basically modeled Austria after the Soviet Union during the Stalin era.
Everyone seems so unrefined and uneducated; I doubt they've even heard of gel.

Make up your mind: was the country in that film modeled after Austria? Or was it based on Stalin's Soviet Union? Perhaps they took the real Austria and modeled it after Stalin's USSR? Or maybe they just invented a non-existent nation altogether and modeled it after Stalin's USSR?

Which razor should I get? 😬

electriclynx45 said:I don't recall them mentioning Canada; I think that fictional (Eastern European?) country was called something else...

Your memory serves you well enough. The plot doesn't actually take place in Canada, but in some place like Unknown or something similar. If our translators decided to call it Canada, they must have been incredibly intoxicated while working on those subtitles.
😬

Unknown said:Acting like an "Unknown".
Good grief, this is worth watching!
A true anthology of American stupidity, arrogance, and pure primitivism!

Jesus, I bet even when you're watching a movie starring a certain dark-haired icon, your veins just pop out: "Wait... Prince George didn't die in a duel! And who ever heard of dueling with mini-cannons?! And what kind of commercialized thirty-minute flick is this?!! What idiot made such a short game... Oh, it's a series? I didn't get a chance to check because I was too busy throwing up my lunch."

Pure genius. 🙄

Alexander Lee34 said:Could someone give me a quick rundown on these two?

I think I’ve seen them both before, though the details are a bit fuzzy in my memory.😕

Danny and Runner?

🙂

Nathan Baker71 said:Here is how one film critic justified ranking this movie
among the top ten releases shown in American theaters last year:

Because it reanimates the "body" and offers the world a chance to remember the Virgin Mary; because it asserts that humanity can prevail against inhumanity; because it tackles the concept of motherhood through a post-postmodern lens—not as a regression into patriarchy, but as a transcendence of existing societal matrices.
😕

This is precisely why I steer clear of any critic who manages to squeeze the phrases "post-modernist" and "transcendence" into a single sentence. 😬